Double Jeopardy (3 page)

“I have a request of you, Antoine,” Lucien
said. He sat behind the massive walnut desk in his library and
signed forms, never bothering to look up as he spoke. He knew his
orders would be followed. Antoine was nothing if not a loyal
employee. The fact that he was also Lucien’s lover was
secondary.

“What would you have of me?”

“I have some things to see to up north. It
seems some of Capone’s men intercepted our last shipment and our
buyer is demanding restitution.”

Antoine sat up straight in his chair.
Problems such as this fell under his jurisdiction. “Why wasn’t I
told? I’ll need to have the workers at the warehouse double their
output.”

“No worries, Antoine. This was not your
fault. Sometimes these little inconveniences happen.” Lucien
flicked off his concern the same way he would a pesky fly, with a
toss of his hand. “Our buyers have asked that I see the transaction
through personally. I’ll take a small group of armed men with me
and make sure things go smoothly.”

“What would you have of me?” Antoine asked
again.

“I’d like you to stay in the house until I
return. Take care of any new business that comes our way. You’ve
done well for me. Use the sauna, enjoy the fares of the new cook,
throw a party and fuck a few strangers. You deserve a few days of
rest.”

Antoine immediately thought of the small,
dark-haired woman who was in Lucien’s employ. He’d only seen her a
scant amount of times, but she intrigued him in ways he couldn’t
understand. He hadn’t mentioned his suspicions to Lucien that she’d
watched them make love through the wall in his suite. He’d seen the
tiny hole in the wallpaper and checked it out from the other side
as he’d left Lucien’s bedroom through the servant’s stairs. She had
a perfect shot of the bed and whoever was on it. There was no doubt
in his mind that she’d been watching them, especially when he’d
knocked on the door a week before to meet Lucien and some others
for a meeting. When she’d answered she’d blushed and become
tongue-tied at the very sight of him.

He wanted her fiercely.

The intimate moments he’d shared with Lucien
lately had been different. They’d been colder, more painful. It was
as if Lucien had to remind him who was boss in the bedroom as well
as in their day-to-day business. He knew Lucien was fucking others.
He could often smell another’s scent on his body, but it wasn’t
Antoine’s place to protest, no matter how much he hated it. He knew
Lucien would not feel as kindly toward him if he took up multiple
partners, no matter that Lucien had just suggested he do just that.
Lucien held a lot of power, and Antoine would have to be very
careful when it came time to break their connection.

And he would break the connection.

He’d saved up enough of his own money and
siphoned off enough of Lucien’s to start over out west. He’d bought
land and a house, had established himself under an assumed name.
But it was all in the timing.

He thought of the recent climaxes he’d
experienced under Lucien’s hand. Even though he’d found
satisfaction, he’d felt empty afterward. But if he hadn’t orgasmed
with such detachment from the rest of his body, he never would have
heard the mewling cries from the other side of the wall that had
alerted him they were being watched. Antoine loved knowing that
watching him and Lucien together turned on the sexy maid.

“How long do you plan to be gone?” Antoine
finally asked.

Lucien looked at him strangely, as if he was
considering something, or was privy to some secret knowledge and
wasn’t planning on sharing the information. It was a look that made
Antoine very uncomfortable.

“A week at most. No more,” Lucien finally
said. “I leave this afternoon. Go have the rest of your things
brought here, and I’ll alert my staff of your presence.”

Antoine watched warily as Lucien rose from
behind the desk and came toward him. It was like watching a snake
slither toward its prey. He stood to meet Lucien on equal ground.
Though he wasn’t as tall or as broad, he was still large enough in
stature to make most men think twice before they approached.

Lucien leaned down and captured his mouth in
a bruising kiss.

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,
mon noir,
” he said after he released his
hold. “And stay away from my maid. I have plans for her.”

Antoine didn’t know if it was a warning. Or a
threat.

Chapter Four

Chloe didn’t know what to think when Lucien
sought her out just after lunch. She’d been busy washing the large
expanse of windows at the back of the house. The front of her dress
was soaked and she shivered in the fall air, trying desperately to
finish the task and get inside.

“I have to leave town for a few days,” Lucien
said from behind her.

She dropped the wet sponge and turned around
with a gasp and a hand held to her breast.

“Oh, you startled me.”

Lucien laughed, and for a moment she could
see the gilded angel she’d once thought him to be.

“Did you say you were leaving?” she
asked.

“Yes, and I’ve come to ask for a kiss
goodbye,” he said as he walked toward her. “Take off your dress. I
don’t want to soil my clothes.”

Chloe looked around nervously. The house was
located on Dauphine Street and there was heavy traffic at certain
times of the day. Anyone could look through the wrought iron fence
that surrounded the estate.

“Do it!” he demanded. “I gave you an
order.”

Chloe quieted her emotions and her shame and
did as he asked. This was the last straw. Her mind was made up.
She’d use the time he was away to make plans for her future. It was
long past the time she got her life back.

Her teeth chattered in the cold and she was
sure her lips were turning blue. The dress fell to her feet and she
stepped out of it.

“Very nice, my dear,” he said as he walked
toward her, unbuttoning his pants.

His cock sprang free from the confinement,
erect, and already seeping with pre-come. He kissed her hard,
rubbing and squeezing her breasts until she felt the tingles of
pleasure shoot to her core. Her body was traitorous and she cursed
herself for needing the touch of another so badly.

“Your body wants release,” he said, cupping
her mound with his hand.

Her wetness soaked his fingers and ran down
the inside of her leg. She moaned and thrust against his hand,
seeking more.

“I want to hear you say it,” he demanded.

“Y…yes. My body wants release.”

“Good girl.” He pushed his finger into her
slowly and rubbed her clit with his thumb. “Does that feel
good?”

“Yes. I want all of you.”

He laughed sexily, a low growl in the back of
his throat that made her shiver—a shiver that had nothing to do
with the cold and everything to do with how he played her body like
an instrument.

“You’re impatient today.”

He removed his finger from her cunt and
brought it to her lips, caressing them. Leaving her moisture for
her to taste, for her to smell. He kissed her and Chloe opened her
mouth under his gentle assault, tasting herself, tasting him. He
pushed her down and Chloe went willingly to her knees. She rubbed
her cheek against his cock, amazed how something so hard could be
soft at the same time. Her hand caressed his sac and she took his
cock in a firm grip with the other. She licked the tip and tasted
the saltiness that had seeped out.

This was where she held the power. She
watched as he closed his eyes and leaned his head back. She teased
him with her tongue, licking his shaft from its base to the very
tip, and then repeating the process. She pumped with her hand and
used the wetness from her mouth to increase the glide over his
shaft. The tip of his cock was plum-shaped and red with his desire
and she finally took the head into her mouth, swirling the tip of
her tongue over the sensitive underside.

She loved servicing a man this way. It turned
her on as much as if the man were using his mouth on her. He placed
his hands on the back of her head and pushed her farther down his
shaft until she could hardly breathe with the pressure.

“Oh, yeah,” he moaned. “Your mouth feels so
good on my cock.”

Chloe anchored herself by grabbing onto his
ass. She opened her mouth and her throat and let him fuck her as if
it were her cunt. She kept her tongue swirling and the suction
heavy as he neared his release. His saltiness increased just as his
tempo did.

“Oh, yeah. Yeah, baby,” he whispered almost
reverently. He gave one final thrust and Chloe felt the salty cream
shoot down her throat. He didn’t withdraw but stayed in her mouth,
pushed to the hilt, so she wouldn’t let any of his essence escape.
Chloe drank him down and grinded her cunt against the heels of
feet, looking forward to her own release.

“Mmmmm, that was so good,” he said,
withdrawing his softening cock from her mouth. “I bet you want your
turn, don’t you?” he asked.

“Yes, please,” Chloe said as she stood back
up. She let him caress her breasts and kiss her throat, wishing he
would get down to business.

“You’re wet and ready,” he said, running his
finger across her sopping cunt. “And that’s exactly how I want you
to stay.”

He pushed her away and buttoned up his
trousers as if he hadn’t just delivered that piece of news.

“What do you mean?” Chloe asked, hating the
sound of pleading that had somehow come from her throat.

“It means I want you to miss me while I’m
gone. I expect you to use this week to build the anticipation for
my return. Don’t use your fingers. And when I get back from my
trip, I’ll give you a fucking you’ll never forget.”

Chloe stared at him, speechless. She was also
naked. A fact she had forgotten until she saw a young man looking
through the fence in her direction rubbing the bulge behind his
trousers.

How could Lucien do such a thing? How could
he be so cruel?

“Oh, I almost forgot,” he said as he grabbed
the small suitcase that had sat unnoticed on the stone pathway that
led to the street. “A business associate of mine will be staying in
the house while I’m away. His name is Antoine. Don’t try to fuck
him either. He likes men and he’d surely tell me of your attempts
to seduce him. I wouldn’t be happy if I heard you tried to distract
him on his visit. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

It was all Chloe could think to say.

Chapter Five

A full day passed before Chloe felt the
absence of Lucien. Before she felt she could catch her breath and
relax. Her imagination had him lurking around corners, spying on
her every action.

After he’d walked away from her the day
before and gotten into the car that had been waiting at the curb,
she’d fled to the solitude of her room, letting the cook know she
wasn’t feeling well and that she was going to take to her bed for
the rest of the day. She had very little time to plan her future,
and she had no clue where she should begin.

She hadn’t even gone down to welcome Antoine
when he’d arrived to see if he needed help settling in. Lucien’s
warning was stamped in her memory, and in her heightened state of
arousal she was afraid to be in the same room with Antoine without
her lust showing. He’d moved into Lucien’s suite of rooms, and he
was still asleep when she started her chores the next morning.

She couldn’t go back to South Carolina where
her family was still located. They didn’t need another mouth to
feed anyway. Maybe she’d head out to California. She could hitch
rides or even steal one of the cars Lucien had parked in the back
of the house. She’d be long gone by the time he returned to notice
its absence. It was a sound idea. Of course, she had no idea what
she’d do once she got to California. If only she could get money
along with the car, her troubles would be easier to overcome.

Chloe went into the kitchen feeling lighter
of heart now that she’d made a final decision. The new cook stood
with her back to the door, frying bacon and checking the oven every
few seconds so the biscuits wouldn’t burn.

“Good mornin’,” the cook said without turning
around.

She was an older woman, her hair silvered and
curled tightly around her head. She been born, raised and widowed
in Nawlins, as she liked to say in her thick accent, just as her
mama had before her.

“Mistah Rousseau’s breakfast will be ready
here in a bit. Now that yer feelin’ better, I’ll have ya take his
tray up to his room.”

The last thing Chloe wanted to do was be in a
bedroom with Antoine Rousseau, but she couldn’t protest without
alerting the cook that there was something wrong. So she took the
tray silently and headed up the stairs. The temptation to leave it
outside the door, knock, and then run away was overwhelming, but
she gathered her resolve and prepared to face him head on.

“Come in,” he said when she knocked on the
door.

Chloe entered the room as quickly as
possible, prepared to deposit the tray and make her exit.

“Thank you, Ms. Monroe,” he said from a chair
in front of the fireplace that flanked one wall. He had a newspaper
spread over his lap and his feet propped on an ottoman. Thankfully,
he was fully dressed for the day.

She brought the tray of food over and set it
up on the small table next to him. She could see him out of the
corner of her eye. His dark hair was longer than the popular style
and he had it tied at the back of his neck rakishly. A dark stubble
covered his face and he watched her lazily with eyes that were
black as night. Eyes she’d seen glazed with passion.

Her hands shook as she set out the cup and
saucer for his coffee and her face flushed with desire. If she was
leaving anyway, did it matter what Lucien’s rules were? Of course,
there was another problem. Lucien had told her that Antoine only
liked men.